Current Cybersecurity Issues You Need to be Aware of

Every day, cybercriminals evolve their attack methods and tools to better target your business. In a CNBC.com article, Fortinet global security strategist Derek Manky stated that “every minute, we are seeing about half a million attack attempts that are happening in cyber space.”

That’s 30 million attacks an hour, or 720 million attacks a day.The sheer volume of attacks demands that businesses be aware of and prepared for the latest cybersecurity issues. Being unaware and unprepared for these issues invites disaster.

What are the new cybersecurity issues you need to be aware of? Here’s a short list of some major issues that may affect your business:

Machine-to-Machine Attacks

There are more and more devices being connected to network systems each year. From coffee pots, to televisions, to printers, to wearable devices, there are billions of connected devices in use in both households and businesses all across the world.

As convenient as these connected devices are, they may also create another point of attack for hackers to use—one that is often overlooked. Malware embedded on these smart devices often goes unnoticed, and makes for an easy launching point for an attack.

Until security on these connected devices improves enough to counter hack attempts, it’s important to make sure that any network where you have so-called “smart” devices connected is secured against internal attacks.

Fake Technical Support Scams and Spear-Phishing Attacks

Spear-phishing attacks are, in and of themselves, nothing new. Even in the days of AOL, hackers would try to trick employees of large companies into surrendering sensitive data by posing as vendors, business partners, or other employees.

However, these attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and frequent. According to statistics from Symantec, “spear-phishing campaigns targeting employees increased 55 percent in 2015.”

What is new is the evolving techniques that hackers are using to trick employees. Some cyber criminals are now using pop-up error alerts to trick web surfers into calling a phony 800 number for “technical support” where the victim may be tricked into surrendering information or uploading malware onto their computer.

Others spend a considerable amount of time spoofing a target company’s letterhead, send domain, and other email characteristics to do a better job of imitating an authority within the company to demand sensitive user information.

The best counter to spear-phishing attacks and fake tech support scams is to train employees to recognize them and to never surrender their account credentials to anyone over the phone or by email.

Ransomware

Ransomware is an increasingly important threat as these attacks become more prolific. As noted by Symantec, ransomware attacks increased by 35% throughout 2015. These attacks will only become more frequent as time goes on.

In these attacks, hackers upload encryption software to a business’ network, encrypting all of the data on said network so the business cannot access it. The hacker then contacts the business owner and demands a ransom in return for the encryption key.

This attack can cripple a business. Unfortunately, paying the ransom doesn’t guarantee that the hacker will provide the encryption key, or that they’ll remove the encryption software from the system.

One of the best counters to ransomware is to have a remote backup of all mission-critical data. In fact, a disaster recovery solution that also has reserved computing assets can allow a business to recover from a ransomware attack in mere hours or even minutes without paying the hacker at all.

These are just a few of the current cybersecurity threats that modern businesses have to be prepared for.

To guard against these issues, businesses need a strong, secure, compliant infrastructure created specifically to minimize vulnerabilities from both internal and external attacks. Learn how you can get such an infrastructure for your business today!